The Schoolboy Mowgli
by LixiPixi
Summary: The story of how Howard convinced Vince to leave school and become a zoo keeper, and told him that GCSEs weren't important. Rated T for language and maybe teenage antics later...
1. An Uncharacteristic Act

**Hey, a new little fic!**

**I had the temptation to write something new, and I thought the teenage Vince would be cool to write.**

**This probably won't be very long at all...a couple more chapters...or it might end up being like a novel. We'll see...**

**Tell me what you think!**

His friends were laughing. Egging him on. They thought it was great, they didn't know what Vince was doing, but it was certainly making that lion mad. He was going crazy, giving bellowing roars and pouncing at the glass walls of his enclosure, only to hit the glass roughly and disorientate himself. Vince turned around to look at his friends. They were doubled over with laughter and he felt a bubble of happiness and pride at being able to impress his friends. Usually they were the type to slump behind the bike sheds with dead-pan expressions. Anyone who could entertain them was automatically cool. Vince knew that was now him.

"What...are you...doing?" One of his friends stuttered through bouts of uncontrollable laughter, as the lion tried in vain to claw his way through the thick glass walls.

Vince shrugged, still trying to maintain his cool and not-bothered exterior. He acted as if he couldn't care less that the coolest guys in the whole of his high school were in hysterics due to his joke. He turned to the lion and smiled his trademark cheeky smile. The one that the male teachers at school hated more than anything. He once got put in detention just for releasing that smile.

"Your hair looks shit," he chided, in an almost silent gravely voice that the lion could understand. He reacted immediately, curling his upper lip to reveal sharp fangs and retorted with some comment about ripping Vince to pieces. "Just try it!" Vince laughed in his lion-voice, tapping the glass of the lion enclosure with his fingernail.

"Did you see that?" Cackled another of the boys, "He thought he was actually gonna get Vince that time! He really thought! What a dumb shit..."

Vince winced when he knew the boys weren't looking. He felt bad taunting the lion like this. He had talked to him before...when he had first realised he could...and the lion had been nice enough to him. But whatever, Vince decided to himself, I'll never see this lion again, but I see these guys every day. Who would I rather have on my side? Vince was preparing another cutting comment for the lion when a figure dressed in green came dashing over, flinging his arms out between Vince and the lion enclosure.

"Excuse me sir, what do you think you are doing?" The man demanded an answer, his tone of voice suggested that he thought Vince certainly did not deserve the title of 'sir'. After all, Vince was the epitome of rebellious school children. His hair grown long enough for a mother to abandon all hope of convincing him to cut it. His black school trousers weren't school trousers, but black skinny jeans that he wore low enough to show off a good few inches of underwear and he decorated with a studded belt and some chains. His day wasn't complete until at least three teachers had told him that something about his appearance wasn't suitable.

Vince cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, but maintained the dead-pan mouth position. The cheeky smile would come in a minute. "You got a problem?" His asked, strands of his feathered hair drifting into his blue eyes.

The zoo keeper hesitated for a minute, before deciding he should be in control of this situation. "_Yes_ sir, I do have a problem. You and your little friends are clearly distressing this animal. I think it would be wise if you vacated the premises."

"Ooh gosh, you think it wise, do you?" Vince applied a fake posh accent, despite the fact that the zoo keeper had a more northern accent. Then _wham_, the cheeky smile, making his friends on the bench splutter with suppressed giggles. The zoo keeper turned a slight shade of beetroot at being mocked, and Vince's smile widened as he knew his shot had hit it's target with excellent precision. "Well, you're lucky then, because we don't want to stay in your pathetic zoo...come on," he gestured to his friends, and in sheer awe from Vince's slick attitude, they followed him obediently towards the exit.

Vince spun round on his heels to make an arrogant gesture towards the zoo keeper, whose name tag read "Howard Moon" when he was frozen right in his tracks. He felt a chill race up his spine and right into his head. There, just behind Howard Moon's left ankle, was a slim sandy brown snake. His head reared, he was going to strike at any second. Vince didn't pause to think how the snake came to be there, although later he learned of a fault in it's enclosure, but he realised the species. It was a Western Taipan, the most poisonous snake in the world. Vince loved animals. He had entire shelves of books on them, although his new friends had no idea about that. He knew the type of snake and he knew there was no hope in saving this Howard if that snake bit him. He didn't think, he just acted.

"DON'T DO IT!" He hissed in his loudest snake voice, praying it was clear enough to get the snake's attention. It worked, he cocked his flat head in a way similar to Vince. Now he just had to convince the snake. "Don't do it...he's poisonous!" It didn't look convinced. "I once bit him, and look..." Vince opened his mouth wide to the snake, "My fangs fell right out, and I grew all wrong and mutated, look see?" Vince waved his arms and legs around. The snake gave a hiss of obvious disgust and placed it's body flat on the ground again, before slithering away and in the direction of the reptile house. By this time Howard had noticed the Taipan and had started sweating profusely and he hadn't exactly been reassured by the strange noises the boy in front of him had been making.

Vince let relief sink it's way through his body, unwinding all the muscles in him that had seemed to suddenly tense up to the consistency of steel. He turned to see his friends, worried about their reaction to the whole incident, and found they were no where to be seen. He let out a groan, worried that all the hard work he had put in to gain their admiration had been wasted.

"They ran off when they saw the snake," said Howard, seeming to read his mind. Howard looked the boy over, trying hard to over-ride his first impression of the teenager. He had, of course, assumed that such a boy had been up to no good. But now he was just confused. This boy had just made weird noises at this snake, and it had backed off as if Howard had repelled it. "What the hell did you do?" Howard asked Vince, desperate to receive an explanation from the boy, who seemed as clueless about his actions as Howard was.

Vince shrugged. He didn't want to explain himself to this guy. He needed to find his friends before they freaked out too much and didn't want anything to do with him. If there was one thing that Vince couldn't handle, it was social exclusion. Plus, it was making him uncomfortable the way that Howard Moon was staring him over like he was one of the animals in the exhibits. Vince knew he had a great rapport with animals, but it was just like a hobby or a little talent. He wasn't a freak. But Howard was still staring at him, dumbfounded by the rush of admiration he was feeling for a gawky teenage boy. He had never seen someone handle an animal like that, and he had been a zoo keeper since he was Vince's age.

"Listen...I have to go..." mumbled Vince, he turned around and almost sprinted away from Howard, feeling the zoo keeper's curiosity burning into his back as he jogged away.

Howard was left standing in the middle of the zoo walkway. He couldn't just forget about what he had seen Vince do. He had to talk to that boy again.


	2. Mowgli: The Camden Version

**Quick update, because I am now addicted to writing this :P**

**I'm not sure about it at all, so please tell me what you think in the form of more lovely reviews. The ones I have recieved already have been lovely and I have you all to thank...**

**Oh, and I am drifting quite far from the plot offered by the Boosh, because I wanted this to be quite realistic and less of a fantasy world...as a result, Vince doesn't live in the forest with Brian Ferry. He has normal parents :P**

**A shame, I know...**

Chapter 2

The Saturday morning light scattered in through the broken blinds in Vince's bedroom. He was laid on his bed, a book about snakes open in front of him. After the incident the day before, he had felt an urge to read about them and had spend the previous night with his nose in the book. Vince knew that everyone was oblivious to his reading habits. They shrugged him off as a moody teenager and assumed he was texting his friends or listening to music when he was shut up in his room. He liked it that way. He could still keep up his image, but still submerge himself in some private nerdyness. His excuse was that he was grounded. Vince was grounded for "cheeky comments", the name of a crime that he was most often punished for...he had said something towards his aunt. He hated her, and she was forcing her presence upon him in the form of a family visit. He figured he was justified in making a "cheeky comment".

"Vince!" A shrill voice shrieked from somewhere downstairs. Vince cringed, his mother always used that cutting tone of voice when she had something equally sharp to say. He heard her thumping up the stairs and hurriedly shoved his book under the covers of his bed before she flung his bedroom door open. "Vince!" She yelled again, as if Vince had a hope in hell of ignoring her at that close proximity, but of course, she wanted him to reply with a quirkily obedient "yes mother?".

Vince did not obey. He leant over to his bedside table and grabbed his phone, pretending that he had just received an urgent text message.

"Vince!" His mother barked a final time. "Would you like to try looking at people when they talk to you?" He gave a sigh and rolled over on his bed, so that he could face her and give her his favourite despairing look. "Are you going to do anything today but laze around and give me those positively sickening looks, Vince?" God, he hated her sometimes. Why did she feel the need to add his name on the end of every sentence? Did she think his attention span was that short? He didn't say anything, just continued the aforementioned sickening look and clicked the buttons on his mobile phone.

His mother made a disgusted noise somewhere between a sigh and a cough. "Sometimes I wonder what I am doing wrong with you Vince...you have your own room, I let you stay out with your friends, I give you enough money and treats!" His mother had put on her horrible whiney and desperate voice. In his head, Vince called it her soap-opera voice because it was the same tone that the actors always used at what was meant to be the moving part of the programme...when they were begging their husband not to leave them or their child not to die. Vince always thought he could see right through that tone like glass. He could tell she never meant it, but carried on non the less, "...but what do I get in return? This teenager attitude and cold looks all day, like I've done you some great injustice!"

This speech might have had an effect on Vince, if he hadn't already heard it every day since he turned sixteen. Now it just irritated him. It made him sick. He wondered, if his mother spouted her deepest feelings so regularly, how was he meant to tell when she was actually upset? One day he would insult her deeply and never realise it, because being deeply offended was becoming such a cliché.

"What do you want me to do?" Asked Vince, finally speaking. He couldn't stand his mother's self-pitying soliloquy for another moment.

His mother paused, stunned by an actual utterance from her son. But she did, in fact, have a task at the front of her mind the whole time.

"Walk the dog..." she muttered.

"Fine." _Why couldn't she just ask instead of guilt-tripping me into do it? I'm starting to become de-sensitized!_ Vince smiled to himself, once his mother had closed the door.

- - -

Vince sat on a park bench. The cold had spread up his legs and through his jeans, making them both painfully numb. Benny, the family dog, was somewhere over the other side of the park. Doing what, Vince didn't care to find out. He just sat and silently prayed that none of his friends were about...or friends of his friends. He didn't want them to see him, sinking to the level of walking a practically brain-dead Labrador. Vince stamped his Converse-d feet, trying to force warm blood towards them, but it felt like whacking pieces of dead wood on the ground. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wished he was somewhere else.

"Hey, Mowgli," A voice from somewhere behind him said. Vince jumped and spun round to see who had called him that weird name. It took him a moment to remember the name of the zoo keeper stood behind him. Had it been Harry?

"Um...hi..." started Vince, a little uneasily, he hadn't wanted to run into the guy who had seemed so interested in something he would rather keep private.

"It's Howard, we met yesterday," confirmed Howard, who sensed the uneasiness in the boy's voice. He had been dying to talk to Vince again, but had assumed he would never see him again, as he knew he wouldn't come running back to the zoo and consequently had been very happy to see the solitary figure sat on the bench.

"If you called that meeting," smiled Vince from one corner of his mouth, "...what did you just call me?"

Howard sat himself down on the bench, just pleased not to immediately be told to piss off, which was what he had expected. "I said Mowgli, you know, the boy from _The Jungle Book_." He hummed a tune that vaguely resembled _Bear Necessities_.

"Oh, yeah," Vince laughed. He had been called many names before, but Mowgli was a new one. At least it was better than "that boy", which was what he was usually called by the members of his family. "I'd like to think I was a bit trendier than Mowgli...I'm like the Camden version of Mowgli..."

Howard laughed, then decided to get to the point. To talk to Vince about what he had come here to talk about. "I came over to talk to you about yesterday..."

Vince felt his stomach churn. He didn't like to think about it. Anything that set him apart from other people was immediately buried beneath his bed, like that book about snakes.

"Well, I don't want to talk about it!" Vince snapped, hit attitude changing as quickly as flicking a switch. He immediately regretted the harshness in his tone but swallowed his manners along with his confidence.

"Why not?" Quizzed Howard, with a confused tone. He knew if he had a talent like that, he would want everyone to know about it. "It was amazing! It _is_ amazing, if you can do what I think you can do...I'd kill to be able to communicate with animals like that!"

"Well, you can have it!" Vince stood up from the bench and called his dog, trying to keep his voice as normal and his tone as broad as he could. Trying to show he was nothing but ordinary. But Howard couldn't let him just run off again. He could see Vince's future. Laid out cleanly in front of him just like a road map.

He grabbed Vince's arm. "No! Please...don't just leave..." He didn't want to beg, but seeing a talent wasted like that was like having to watch someone burn a possession you had always wanted. Howard had always longed to impress the people that had always been oblivious to his efforts. Vince _could_ impress people, but he was just ignoring his ability. Pretending it wasn't there. Howard couldn't let someone do that. "Please, come for a drink with me and some people from the zoo? They'd love to meet you."

Vince spun round, glaring at Howard in a way that reminded him of an animal staring you out. "Why should I?" He practically spat, Howard's fascination was touching a very raw nerve.

"Because..." Howard searched to find a reason that the teenager would understand and agree with, "because...you'll regret it if you don't..."

Vince gave a bark of laughter. "Will I?"

"Well, we're meeting at the King's Head tonight at eight...come or don't come. Do whatever you want." Howard shrugged his shoulders in surrender. "I can't force you..."

Vince decided to be stubborn, and stalked away from Howard, pulling his dog behind him.

Still, on the walk home, the prospect of meeting these people was tempting. He was curious. He had to admit. Would they love him, admire him and idolise him because of his talent? Vince wanted to be part of a group...it was true...but he also had another yearning, to be the best out of that group. The one everyone looked at as the one to copy, the one they all wanted to be like. Out of the whole band, he longed to be the front man.

He bit his lip and he reached his front door. Curiosity, biting away at him like a hunger.

_Curiosity killed the cat_, he thought to himself as he stepped inside his house. _But I bet he had a bloody good time..._


	3. Howard On A Mission

**God, I'm writing this quick. It's going to end up too long if I carry on at this rate!**

**Just so you all know, Vince in this is 16 years old, I estimate my Howard to be about 20-21 and Gideon is about 18-19. It just felt really wierd when I was writing Howard and Vince talking, because I thought "everyone is going to be picturing Howard as 30 odd!" So I've put your minds at rest :P**

**Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 3

The weather was growing worse as the day bore on. Howard looked out of the window and sighed at the perpetual drizzle, he was going to have to go out and walk in that weather. But he wasn't going to let him deter him. He knew that Vince was going to turn up that evening. Howard knew people, and he knew himself, and he knew that if someone had given him such an invitation, he would definitely go. Plus, this Vince was a rebellious teen, and wouldn't usually be allowed in a pub, so he would grab any chance he got. Howard knew what he had to do. He had to convince Vince to forget about school and join ranks at the zoo. Since Tommy left, the zoo had gone no where but downhill, and they could use someone like Vince to act a general morale and business boost. And Howard couldn't help but want to be responsible for finding him. Maybe then he might have his name remembered by the other zoo keepers...maybe then Bob Fossil might treat him with a bit of the respect that he deserved...maybe Gideon might fall for him...

His head was still swimming with the possibilities when he noticed the time on the clock. He had to go and meet Vince and everyone else from the zoo. He grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair and headed out into the sleet and rain.

- - -

He was sure it was going to brake. Any moment, just come clean off the wall. Amazingly, the trellis stayed in place and Vince managed to make his way down to the patio without seriously injuring himself. He didn't notice, until his feet were on firm ground, how profusely he had been sweating. He grimaced and brushed his hands off on his jeans, with the triumphant feeling that he had managed to escape through his bedroom window and not even hurt himself slightly. He made a note to himself that the trellis was a useful escape route from his bedroom window. Unfortunately, he was no so lucky on account of the weather conditions.

Five minutes later, he was barely halfway down his street and was already drenched. His treasured hair was plastered against the frame of his face and raindrops fell against his face like tears, dripping off the end of his nose and scattering from strands of his dark hair. Vince could see the pub silhouetted by the dull amber glow of a street lamp, just at the end of the road. He quickened his pace to a jog, trying to ignore the way the soles of his shoes squished under his feet like soggy sponges.

He reached the door of the pub and pushed it open with his body weight, while his hands set to work trying to wrestle with the soaked mop that was his hairstyle. _You never know who you might meet_, he told himself as he brushed his limp fringe out of his eyes. His vision restored, he glanced around the smoky pub, waving at Howard when he waved at him, and making his way over to where he was sat with some friends.

"Alright?" Vince greeted Howard and the guys he was sitting with. They all looked dismally zoo keeper-ish. None of them had well groomed hair styles or skinny jeans like Vince wore. He felt like he was stood at the other side of the room instead of in the middle of a group.

They all mumbled greetings back and Howard smiled. "I thought you might turn up."

"Yeah, you knew I would, right?" Vince grinned out of the side of his mouth.

"Well I didn't _know_..." Howard started, but Vince gave him a look, "ok...I knew, but I wanted you to come." He turned to the other guys, who didn't seem remotely interested in Vince and Howard's conversation and were talking amongst themselves. "Hey guys, this is..." Howard stumbled, remembering that he had never found out the name of the boy who had saved his life.

"Vince," Vince filled in, "Vince Noir - rock and roll star," He gave his trademark grin with the last comment, expecting everyone in hearing range to turn and give him an instantly charmed smile. That was what usually happened. Or at least people laughed because they thought it was a cute joke. But the guys at the table just nodded at him in a way that suggested they hadn't really heard properly. Vince felt his face flush red at embarrassment. His comments never fell flat like that! He sat down on a bar stool and hung his head a little, pretending to be interested at something on his lap and allowing his wet hair to cover his burning face.

Howard sat down on the stool next to Vince and offered him a drink that he had already bought for him. He offered dumb small talk about the weather and some roadwork's that were nearby and how annoying they were. He knew he couldn't just pounce on Vince with a proposition for him to join the zoo, they would need to be friends first. But, he thought, he could still get some useful stuff from him.

"So, Vince, you're sixteen right...what do you want to do when you leave your school?" Howard asked. He was hoping he would hear the answer 'why Howard, I want to become a zoo keeper and use my talent to benefit many other people!' But he had a feeling he wouldn't be that lucky.

Vince cocked his head on one side. Howard's question reminded him of the annoying meeting they made you go to at school. Just like then, Vince felt his stomach tense up with the pressure to give an appropriate answer. "Um...I don't know...I might...maybe...go to college?" He ended his sentence with a tone that showed he was seeking approval and some sort of sign that this was the right answer.

Howard laughed, seeing through Vince's thoughts like a pane of glass. "I'm not judging you! I just want to know what you're into..."

Vince smiled in relief and searched his brain for a real answer. "Umm...well I like music...and fashion and stuff..." he tried in vain to think of a career that mainly involved those two things, "but so does everyone, so I dunno what I'm gonna do...be a really stylish musician?"

"I have the feeling you're not the first person to long to be a stylish musician," Howard laughed. He decided the time was right to drop a hint and hope Vince would pick it up. "You should do something you're good at...what are you good at?"

Vince bit his lip. "My mum says I make good cups of tea..." he murmured this so honestly it was almost pathetic, and Howard had to struggle not to laugh.

"Well there you go, you can be a tea maid!" Howard declared like it was the truest thing in the world.

Vince almost spat his beer right out, he laughed so hard. "Great, my future sorted!" They laughed about the joke for a few more seconds, before Vince tackled the more serious nature of the question. "But really...I'm not good at anything..." Howard gave him a look of disbelief but he kept on talking, "...I don't get very good marks at school. My teachers say I'm not committed." He stuck his tongue into his cheek, trying desperately to search for a positive thing. It evaded him, somehow. "I don't really like work. It's boring...I don't think I'll make a very good adult..." Vince smiled in a sort of self-pitying way. For the past few months, he had shoved all ideas related to growing up and being in anyway responsible right to the back of his mind. They gave him a headache. The more he thought about them, the more he realised how useless he would be at most jobs. He couldn't sit still for five minutes, so he couldn't work in an office. He wasn't good enough at music to _really_ be a musician. He wasn't smart enough to be something like a doctor or a lawyer. He thought law and science were boring anyway. It was like being stuck in a maze, all the exits blocked with unsolvable problems.

Howard felt his hopes lift slightly. Vince was desperate to be good or something, and Howard was going to give him that thing, on a plate. He felt almost positive that Vince would accept a position in the zoo...it was perfect after all...he didn't need tricky qualifications...he wouldn't be sat at a desk...and most of all, he would be _good_ at it. Howard couldn't wait to offer Vince everything he wanted. It wasn't everyday he got to make people's dreams come true. He began to construct a little mini-speech in his mind. It would be all about "aspirations" and "opportunities"...Vince would drop to his knees as soon as he heard it...declare Howard a genius and hero for offering him what he had been yearning for all this time-

"Howard?" A female voice interrupted his internal monologue. A female voice that turned him instantly into a fumbling, awkward idiot. _Gideon_. Howard had mentioned they were meeting at the pub, he hadn't actually expected her to turn up! He was filled with such utter delight that he spun round, almost falling off his stool, and practically screamed her name.

Gideon took a worried step back at his outburst, silently wondering why he had to shout like that. She, as usual, just shrugged off his strange behaviour and flicked her silky brown hair out of her face as a sort of greeting.

Howard struggled to get words out of his mouth in a coherent manner. "Um...Gideon, sorry, nice of you to come." He stumbled on his words, and noticed Vince staring at him like he was insane or retarded. Or both. "Um...Vince, this is Ms. Gideon...Gideon this is-"

"Vince," interrupted Vince, not trusting anyone but himself with his introduction. "Vince Noir - Rock and roll star."

After the wink and expertly delivered cheeky grin that followed, Gideon could do nothing but offer an instantly charmed smile in return.


	4. Lost In A Look

**A new chapter! One I am even less sure about than the previous chapter...boo...**

**Well let me know what you think, and rest assured that I have absolutely no plot planned for this, haha. I'm pretty much just making it up as I go along.**

**And the first person to say "poor Howard" gets some form of award...**

Chapter 4

Howard was disappointed. On paper, this sounded like a perfect evening. Surrounded by his friends, him and Vince were getting along like a house on fire and he felt there was no was he wouldn't want to join him at the zoo. Gideon was there when he had invited her. It should be perfect. But, like many things in life for Howard Moon, it wasn't.

He was having to sit there and just watch the two of them. Staring at each other like sick dogs. Gideon seemed to have completely forgotten Howard's existence. After Vince had introduced herself, she just launched herself into conversation with him and didn't seem to want to come up for any air. So Howard sat there, watching the two of them grow closer and closer right in front of his eyes. He wished he knew a way to divert Gideon's attention to him for just one moment, but he was no good at that. He didn't attract attention, it just swept past him like a cold breeze, leaving him slightly chilly and without his hat on anymore.

Vince on the other hand, was simply basking in it like warm sunshine. Every joke he cracked, Gideon obediently laughed.

Howard couldn't believe it. He had only just met Vince and already, his seemed to have completely forgotten his presence in the room once he had met someone more interesting. And female. It was so typical of Howard's life that he couldn't stand it anymore. He didn't care if Vince didn't want to come and join him at the zoo. If he did, people would just marvel over how amazing Vince was and forget all about the person that had found him in the first place anyway. Howard grabbed his jacket and mumbled a goodbye to everyone that no one really seemed to hear or acknowledge. He was sick of being transparent. He was one of the most dedicated workers at the zoo and he wasn't sure he had ever received any sort of praise. He sometimes wondered what was the point of it all. What was the point of helping Vince out, if he would forget Howard as soon as a pretty girl was on the scene?

It was true, Vince didn't really notice Howard go until he was gone. He was too preoccupied. His friends were gonna be so jealous! He was chatting up an older girl! Most of his friends didn't even have girlfriends, let alone older ones.

"So, how old did you say you are again?" Gideon asked, giving a coy smile. He seemed to like her, she hoped silently to herself. She certainly like him...he had the cutest smile ever...and she liked the way she just caught flashed of his blue eyes when he flicked his fringe out of his eyes. She just couldn't stop staring.

Vince felt the urge to lie. He was sure she was older than him, and didn't want her to be put off. Plus, his confidence was fuelled by a few more beers. "I didn't, but I'm eighteen..." he lied smoothly, glad that Howard hadn't already introduced him on his behalf.

"Ok cool," Gideon grinned, "So how do you know Howard?" She asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Howard wanted to meet me because I'm good with animals," he answered, honestly this time.

"Really?"

"Yes. I can talk to them." Vince was shocked at how easily the piece of information slipped from his mouth when his head was filled with the desire to impress. He felt like he had dropped a pair of keys down the drain. There was no way of taking back what he said. She would think he was a freak! Vince felt his face burning in anticipation of Gideon's mocking, but instead, she gasped and let her mouth hang open.

"What? Really?"

Vince was tempted to deny it, say he had only been kidding. But was she impressed? He was sure he could hear it in her voice. So he just responded with a simple "yes".

"That's amazing! I love animals...you will have to show me!" Gideon was excited now. She had thought Vince was pretty, yes, but she had sort of assumed that he was a bit dumb, and that there wasn't really anything below his charming exterior, just like most of the people she knew. But now she realised non of that was true, she knew she wasn't just going to forget about Vince once she had left the pub.

- - -

Howard struggled with the rusty lock on the door to his keeper's hut. He had just finished his late evening rounds of the zoo and was desperate to get inside for a cup of tea and some sleep. The end to a rubbish day. He had thought he had been getting somewhere with Gideon, he had been sure that she liked him. He had asked her out properly, and she had turned up and actually seemed happy enough to see him. A friendship with Gideon had only barely started and already Howard had lost her to someone else. _You were an idiot to think she would ever like you in the first place.._

Finally, he got the door open, and groped the rough wall, searching for the light switch. He knew he wouldn't be able to ask Vince to join him now. He would spend every day, glaring at him and wondering why she chose him. He would hate him even though he hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't fair on Vince or on Howard. Life wasn't fair. _Oh god,_ Howard thought to himself as he poured cold water into the kettle, _how will I even be able to survive around Gideon? Knowing I could be with her, but I'm not..._

He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice he had spilled water on the floor until the puddle soaked through his shoes.

- - -

The road up to Vince's house was practically pitch black. The one street light in his little cul-de-sac had been vandalised and stood dead at the end of his road. It was usually smothered by the over grown trees anyway, only droplets of the orange glow leaking through the leaves. The lights in all of the houses were out, including Vince's, much to his relief. It meant his mother hadn't noticed him missing and wasn't waiting up for him to tell him off, like she had many times before.

God, why was he thinking about his mum when he was stood in the dark with a pretty girl? That always seemed to happen. Usually at parties, when he got with some random girl, but found himself thinking about his biology homework while he was at it. Or how he was gonna get home or something like that. _I'm doing it again! _He scolded himself, and tried to concentrate on her arms around him, and his fingers twisting through her soft hair. He didn't want to kiss her because he had forgotten to clean his teeth before he left the house, and he was pretty sure his breath was bad. He settled for just feeling her pressed against him, and twisting strands of hair around his finger tips, feeling her heart beat against his chest, with a tempo faster than his own.

"I should probably get home..." Vince started, trying not to sound rude. But he was cold and the wall he was leant against was digging into his back through his jacket.

"Oh...ok..." Gideon pulled away, smiling into the darkness, though Vince couldn't see.

He wondered what to say to her. Would he see her around? He wouldn't mind meeting up with her again, when breath didn't smell bad and he wasn't cold or anything.

"I guess I'll see you," Vince started, running a hand through his own hair. "I didn't really finish talking to Howard after all." He felt a stab of guilt. He realised he had never said goodbye to Howard, just ignored him in favour of Gideon.

"What?" Gideon asked, temporarily forgetting the beginning of her evening.

"He left, while we were talking...I think I completely ignored him," muttered Vince, shuffling nervously in the autumn leaves that carpeted the pavement.

"Did he?" Gideon asked, yawning. "I didn't notice."


	5. The Dark Side Of The Moon

**Don't be too shocked, but I think I might have written a chapter I like!**

**The internal monologues are all belonging to Howard in this chapter, I thought he deserved them. Still no idea where this is going, but you all seem nice and supportive of my lack of plot, so that's no problem!**

**Howard, Vince and Gideon all belong to Barrat and Fielding, but the admissions lady is aaaall mine!**

Chapter 5

"Vince Noir! If I find you have your phone out AGAIN, I will take it off you and you won't have it back until the end of the school term!"

Vince sighed, slipping his mobile phone back into his pocket. He had been checking it religiously, every five or ten minutes. He had given Howard his mobile number, hadn't he? It seemed so strange. They had been getting on well on the Saturday night, then Howard just got up and left and Vince hadn't heard from him for four days. Not that it mattered of course, Howard was just a boring zoo keeper, why would an up-and-coming electro star want to bother himself with him anyway? To tell the truth, Vince was embarrassed. He had been rude to Howard, and badly, badly wanted to set the record straight. Being unintentionally rude was one of the things that drove Vince mad. It made him cringe to think that people might think badly of him when he was trying to be nice.

The school bell cut through his thoughts and the boredom that filled the air of the classroom. The screeching of chairs on the cheap wood floor snapped Vince into action, and he immediately starting tossing his books in his bag, hungry to be outside of the school gates. he thought he heard the teacher bark his name as he hurried out of the classroom, but he wasn't going to waste another second in that stuffy classroom. Teacher or no teacher.

He was about to cut ahead of the crowd of people heading out of a side door when a hand grabbed his shoulder. He span round to see who it was.

The eyeliner-ed eyes of one of friends smiled back at him. "Hey, Vince, you comin' out with us?"

Vince looked round and saw three more boys milling behind him, looking bored with their dead-pan expressions. Vince liked his friends, they were cool after all...but he had to admit...it wasn't particularly tempting.

"Where are you off?" Asked Vince, searching for a reason to decline.

"Johnny, he got some booze from his older brother. We were gonna hang at the park an' have some fun..."

_God, they're so pathetic. That's their idea of an afternoon; vodka at the fucking kiddies playground- _Vince caught himself in mid thought. Had he just thought that? He had just called the coolest guys in his year pathetic? What the? He hoped he hadn't said it out loud and just not realised. He would be dead for sure. But they were still stood there, waiting for an answer with expressions that told Vince that they didn't really care either way.

"I've got to go meet someone...maybe later, yeah?" He grinned smoothly. His friends just nodded and sloped off down the corridor. Vince dashed out of the side door, appreciating the way the cold air outside stung his cheeks.

He took long and quick strides until he reaches a public toilet on one of the street corners, dashing in and locking himself in a cubicle. He dumped his bag on the worryingly slimy flour and began tugging his blazer and shirt off in one go, forgetting about the tie that held it all in place. Once he had unknotted it, he dumped his school clothes on the cistern, and began searching in the bottom of his bag. His fingers eventually grazed the cotton, and he pulled out his favourite _Kings of Leon_ t-shirt. It was crumpled from being crushed under his school books, but still fit like a second skin. After tugging it over his head and stretching it down to his hips, he adorned his wrist with a handful of silver bangles that jangled noisily when he reached up to run his fingers through his hair. He didn't need to check his reflection on the way out to know that he looked good. Although he checked it anyway.

He made his way over to the zoo, relieved to be out of his school uniform. He was going to find Howard, but there was always the chance that he might run into Ms. Gideon, and he couldn't let her see him in his school uniform, or she would know he had lied.

The lady at the admissions booth looked Vince up and down like he was something that was stuck on the underside of her desk.

"You need to buy a wristband to access the zoo," She said plainly, chewing a grey lump of gum in a way that reminded Vince of a cow.

"I don't care about seeing the zoo. I just want to talk to Howard Moon!"

She cracked her gum. "I can call him if you want," she said, although maintained an expression that told Vince it was the last thing she wanted to do. Nevertheless, he nodded.

The admissions lady pressed down a button, and a loudspeaker crackled and fizzled it's way into life.

"Howard Moon, report to admissions. Howard Moon to admissions," she droned in a perfect "checkout number four, please" voice, before adding, "He'll be here in a minute."

_Duh_, thought Vince to himself. He moved out of the eye line of the admissions lady, who was still staring at him, her overly plucked eyebrows raised so high they were disappearing under her fringe. Vince slumped against a wall, drawing his name in the dirt with the tip of his converse. He had just finished carefully printing his first name when a voice interrupted him.

"Oh, Vince!" Something told him that the high pitched voice with it's distinct accent, didn't belong to Howard. It in fact belonged to Gideon, who set the rake she had been holding against the wall, and rushed over to him.

"Hey, Gideon," Vince mustered up charming smile, hiding his annoyance at being greeted by the wrong person. Not that he minded Gideon, of course, she was pretty and she liked him. That ticked both of Vince's boxes.

"You came to see me?" She asked in a hopeful voice, and Vince knew that he could hardly answer negatively to a question like that.

"Of course! Haven't seen you since Saturday, have I?"

Gideon gave a giggle and shook her head. "I was hoping I would run into you, we don't have each other's phone number!" She grabbed Vince's arm to try and make him understand the seriousness of his issue, "and how are we ever going to keep in touch without phone numbers?"

"Smoke signals?" Vince joked, setting her off laughing again. She flapped her hand at him in a kind of "oh you!" type of way and Vince gave her a smile, though he couldn't help looking over Gideon's shoulder and seeing if he could spot Howard approaching. He was kind of nervous, Gideon seemed awfully keen on him and he couldn't say that he was absolutely crazy about her. There was nothing _wrong_ with her, but he just wasn't all over her like she was with him. Luckily, Vince didn't have to worry much longer, as an American voice blared over the loudspeaker, demanding that Gideon report to once place or another, he hadn't been paying enough attention to remember where.

"Oh dear, I better go, but don't you leave before I get a chance to give you my number, ok?" She smiled at him and went up on her tip toes, giving Vince a peck on the cheek before grabbing her rake and heading off for another part of the zoo.

Howard was already having a bad day. He had been woken two hours earlier than usual because there was so much to get done. The kettle hadn't been working so he was still going without his morning cup of tea to keep him alive. He kept getting called to Bob Fossil's office when he was in the middle of doing other things. And _now_ he was getting called to admissions when he had been working right at the other end of the zoo!

He wondered what they could possible want him for, then he saw. Gideon with her hand on Vince's arm. Gideon laughing at Vince's jokes. Reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. Howard felt anger leap up from his stomach and burn in his head. All he wanted to do was march over and pull them away from each other, and he had to cross his arms as a kind of way of holding himself back. _It's not fair_, his mind taunted him, _he walks on the scene and Gideon loves him after just one hour. You've been trying to impression Gideon for months now...he doesn't deserve her...go over there and tell him. Go on, I bet it would feel good to break his nose._ Howard took a deep breath and shook his head to shut up the little voice that was baiting him.

He was suddenly aware that Gideon was walking straight towards him. He didn't know why, but he didn't want her to know that he had seen her and Vince together. He felt like he had been spying and had _jealous_ tattooed right across his forehead. Howard looked around, panicked, for a place to duck away. But he didn't have to worry, she just walked straight past him, without batting an eyelid. That hardly improved his mood.

"What do you want?" Howard demanded more than asked, marching over to where Vince was now stood.

"Um..." Vince tried to remember why he was there. He was shocked by Howard's sudden arrival, he hadn't noticed him approaching and he was still slightly overwhelmed by the way Gideon acted around him. "Saturday night, I didn't say goodbye to you. I'm sorry, I must have sounded really rude!"

Howard wasn't quite sure how to react. The way Vince had acted was one of the reasons he used to justify his new found dislike for the boy. "Oh...ok...anything else?" he asked, then realised he wasn't holding his ground well enough and snapped, "I'm busy today, you know!"

"I thought we still had stuff to talk about, you know...we didn't really finish our conversation..." Vince tried to prompt Howard into resuming said conversation. He stayed silent, staring at Vince like he was expecting something. "But maybe we could catch up some other time, right?" He figured Howard wasn't in a very social mood.

"Maybe." Howard was reminded of that Saturday night. The way he felt when Vince announced that he wished he was good at something. The excitement he'd had at being able to offer Vince what he needed, and his expectations of the gratitude he would receive. The fluttery feeling returned, and he wanted to talk to Vince, he really, really wanted to...they could get round their differences...Howard was sure he could get over his pathetic jealously, for the sake of helping poor aspirationless Vince out...

"Alright, I'll leave you to your work then," smiled Vince, then he handed Howard a little slip of paper with numbers on it, "and can you give that to Gideon? She asked for it. I'll see ya then." He turned to leave the zoo.

_Forget it_, Howard's mind starting biting at him again. _He doesn't care, he doesn't want to be friends with you. He only wants to talk to you so he can get closer to Gideon. Rip up that piece of paper. Go on. Don't let him get any closer to her...then you two will be together. Vince is the only person keeping you apart. Rip it up..._

Howard could feel his hands sweating, smudging the ink on the piece of paper. He didn't know what to do. He was split down the middle. One side of him wanted to be friends with Vince, he was a nice guy. The two of them would work well together, and Vince would always have a certain admiration for the older guy who had tutored him to become a great zoo keeper. He could see Vince in one of the green zoo keeper jackets. Grinning his genuine smile and saying "thanks Howard" with a little nod. Howard could feel the pride welling up in his heart just in imagining the moment.

The other side of him pushed the image out of his head, ripping the picture into shreds. It reminded him of the way he felt when he had seen Vince and Gideon together. This horrible, burning hatred that clawed at the inside of his stomach. Tensed his muscles so hard they hurt. Gave him this unsupressable hunger for revenge. Made him realise, as long as Vince was around, Gideon wouldn't see him. He would be invisible in Vince's shadow.

Before he had even realised what he had done, the pieces of paper were littering the ground like numbered confetti.


	6. False Hope

**(Tries to avoid predictably expressing her distaste for her own writing) Next chapter folks!**

**Sorry for the wait, but I have had a bit of a busy week. Thanks for all your reviews and comments, you all rock!**

Chapter 6

Howard was set on not feeling guilty. There was no reason why he should. If anything, Gideon and Vince should be ones feeling guilty for the way they had ignored his fairly blatant feelings. He was sure he was well justified in cutting off their relationship. It wouldn't work anyway, he thought to himself as he did his last rounds of the zoo by torchlight, Gideon was too old for Vince...too sophisticated and intelligent. _Vince doesn't want her really, he'll want some rock star or model for a girlfriend...she's perfect for __**me**_Truthfully, Howard just wasn't letting himself feel guilty. Every time that little voice piped up, telling him it was a dishonest thing to do, he silenced it with a torrent of false reasoning.

Howard was just about to head to the zoo's office to sign out when he saw that the light in the reptile house was still on. He was sure he had turned it off. After all, Howard Moon, dedicated zoo keeper, would never let the zoo lose funds via it's electricity bill! Howard decided he could wait a minute to sign out, and headed for the reptile house.

Howard was right, _he _hadn't left the lights on. Gideon was crouched on the floor, her face so close to the glass front of one of the exhibits that her breath made little misty circles on it's clear surface. Her long brown hair fell forward over her face, shielding her features from Howard's gaze. He didn't want to disturb her. She was whispering quietly under her breath to whatever reptile lived that particular exhibit, while she changed the fact cards at the side of the glass enclosure.

"Ms. Gideon?" His mouth spoke before his mind had a chance to control it.

Gideon jumped from the shock of the voice coming out of nowhere, stumbling backwards guiltily as if she had been caught committing a crime. The fact cards slipped out of her hands and slid across the laminated floor, coming to a stop at Howard's feet.

"Oh, you scared me!" She gasped, out of breath from shock. Howard muttered his apologies and began to gather the cards from the floor. He stacked them in his hands and walked over to Gideon, handing them to her. When he handed the cards to her, his fingertips brushed hers and he felt like an static shock had just shot up his arm.

"Thank you..." Gideon paused for a second, and grimaced as if she had a headache, before seeming to return to normal to finish her sentence, "...Howard. Thank you, _Howard."_

He gave her an awkward smile, unsure how to react to her bizarre facial expression, which was now one of relief.

"I came to turn out the lights and lock up, Ms. Gideon," Howard explained, holding up his set of keys and jangling them slightly. "Why are you still here so late?"

"I forgot to change the cards..." She said quietly, although her eyes were glazed slightly as if fact cards were the last thing on her mind that evening.

Howard smiled with what he hoped looked like understanding. Inside his stomach was doing summersaults in sheer shock that he had managed to say two sentences to Gideon without confusing or scaring her. _See, _a voice in Howard's head chimed, _I told you that getting rid of Vince would mean you two could be together. Now just ask her out...she's sad because she thinks Vince isn't interested...she's longing for someone to be with._

"Howard?" Gideon interrupted his thoughts with her sudden outburst. Her tone was one of a person who was struggling to get her words out, so had to force them out. "Did...did Vince give you anything...to give to me?"

"No." Howard didn't let himself mull over his answer. He couldn't give his conscience a chance to ruin his plans.

"Really?" Gideon asked again, her tone weakening, like it might break any minute. "Not even a message?"

"No." He repeated again, like a robot.

"Did...did he say anything about me at all?" Her voice was like a thin sheet of ice, cracking at the edges.

"No, he just wanted to talk to me to let me know that we can't go out on Friday because he's got a date of some sort." Howard regretted the last sentence almost as soon as it left his mouth. He knew it was a lie, and a horrible one at that. _I said ask her out, not tell her that Vince is a some ignorant cheater_, hissed the voice in Howard's head. He wished he could take his tale back, but he knew that would mean revealing himself as a liar, and that just wouldn't cut it if he wanted to be with Gideon.

"He's...on a date?" She squeaked, quieter than the hiss of the snakes in the reptile house.

Howard could see the tears creeping up and gathering in the delicate corners of her eyes. He tried to bite back the guilt with his empty reasons. She deserved better than Vince, they weren't right for each other, Howard and Gideon were meant to be...his justifications forced the lump back down his throat. He managed to hold her gaze, blocking out the tears that he could see fall before they left her eyes.

"S-sorry..." she muttered, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. "I just...I thought he liked me..."

_I LIKE YOU!_ Howard screamed inside his head. _I like you more than Vince ever will. Even if put every inch of himself into adoring you, he would never even graze how I feel with his fingertips._ Why couldn't she see? He wanted to grab her by the arms and just yell at her for being so blind. Howard was sure that when she looked at him, she looked right through him, even though she was _all_ that he saw. He tried to force his thoughts to come out of his mouth, but it felt like they were in different languages, and wouldn't translate from one to the other. Anyway, his previous lack of honesty was pinching away at him, demanding him to tell the truth before it was lost altogether.

"I'm sure..." Howard tried to add "he likes you" to his sentence, but the envy in the back of his mind growled and wouldn't let it past his lips, "I'm sure...you're better than him anyway..."

Gideon didn't seem convinced, but she offered Howard a weak and trembling smile, brushing her long hair behind her ears in an attempt to compose herself. "I hope you're right," she practically whispered.

"I definitely am," Howard grinned, could he possibly be saying the right thing for once? "Do you want a cup of tea?" He worried for a moment about how pathetic that comment sounded, and decided he need to justify it. "It always makes me feel better...tea..."

Gideon gave a genuine laugh, it glimmered and danced in her eyes, even after her smile had finished. "I'd love a cup."

She gave Howard a fleeting glance and he felt that static shock through his body again.

- - -

The hand on the clock slowly crept past twelve, it's ticks reverberating off the walls and leaving acres of silence at the short second interludes. Vince had been listening for hours. The ticks were now just background noise, the foreground was his breathing, slow gasping on the off-beat. He leant over and grabbed his mobile phone from the nightstand. The screen glowed a vicious shade of green, burning his eyes from the contrast with the shadowy bedroom.

Vince sighed. The display was blank. It had been the same the other times he had checked it. Every five minutes since he had retired to bed. Before that, he had been sat at his desk, staring at his homework in the hope that it might do itself. His mind tracked back to the conversation he had with Howard a few days earlier. _He seemed to think that I might be good at something...I should ask him next time we talk..._he wished that he could talk to Howard, but he didn't have his phone number. Vince stared up at the ceiling. He wondered to himself why he wanted to talk to Howard more than he wanted to talk to his school friends. If he asked them what he should do after he finished school, they would just laugh at him for even caring.

He sat up in bed, running a hand though his hair, trying to check it's appearance just by feeling it. He wondered why Gideon hadn't called him yet. She had seemed really keen. He had thought to himself before that he perhaps didn't like her that much, but the sting of rejection was slowly beginning to eat at him. Had he offended her without realising it? _Oh god, does she think I'm a horrible person? _He wracked his brains for what he could possibly have done wrong. _I'm so stupid. I should have known I would blow it all before it even began! Now she won't want anything to do with me..._

He pressed the light on his phone again. The screen was still blank. All that appeared was his background picture; his friends sat on some bench, while he tried to fit his head in the picture and take it at the same time. Vince ran another hand through his hair. He wished he had real friends to put in a picture frame. Those guys he hung around with at school, he didn't smile when he saw them, they weren't a reason to get up in the morning. When heard amazing news or gossip, he didn't feel excited just to tell them. His friends were just like the items of clothing that his mum hated him for buying; he had them just to look cool, and not for much else.

Vince wondered, for a second, what it would be like to have him and Howard as the background on his phone. A real friend, that wouldn't just want him to look cool, or wouldn't ditch him because something better came along. Howard wouldn't be like some of the people at school, who hated Vince because he was charming, good-looking, and landed girls that he didn't even want.


	7. Blood In The Water

**I demand that all fanfic writers go out and have a go at writing bad Vince. It is so, so, so much fun! He should be bad all the time!**

**Right, it's angsty again, and the it won't be getting any happier for quite a while, so brace yourselves :P**

**And no, Vince isn't insane, he just has an over-active imagination. **

Chapter 7

Vince was having a shit day. There was no other word for it. He slammed the front door of his house as hard as he could behind him. It hadn't been locked, which made his afternoon even worse, as it meant his mother was somewhere in the vicinity.

It had started at lunch. He had been sat on a wall with all of his friends. Some chav had walked past and made a dig about his hairstyle...or his lack of a hairstyle. His friends had given him a look like _are you gonna just sit and take that?_ As far as Vince was concerned, he hadn't had a choice in the matter. He couldn't just sit and take it. He had to jump off the wall and run over to the guy. Had to throw all his weight into a punch.

Vince didn't realise what he had done until he was sat in the headmaster's office, his knuckles burning and crimson blood stains splattered on his pristine school shirt like wine on a table cloth. His hand had darted to his nose. It was a shape different to how it had been before. He couldn't feel it properly, it was numb and his fingers couldn't hold on to one place, they slipped because of the blood.

"Suspended?!" His mother yelped, she was stood in front of him now, and Vince was back in his kitchen at home. The headmaster's office seemed a mile away.

"For a month," Vince added simply, like he was stating the weather or something equally dull.

"A month?" Her mouth hung open. Vince could see the fillings in her back teeth. "What on earth did you do to be suspended for a month?"

"I got in a fight."

"Yes, I can see that," She looked at him in disgust. "But I didn't think they would take you out of school for so long...just for fighting..."

"That's not all."

"Oh?"

"I told to headmaster to go fuck himself." He continued to speak as if it was nothing of importance. A smile betrayed him. Creeping on to his face when he remembered the headmaster's expression. The way a vein stood out on his forehead like a snake under his skin. Skin glistening a vicious shade of purple as he hollered at Vince. Told him that if were up to just him, Vince would never return to school at all.

"You think it's funny? Oh, Vince..." his mother whispered, a hand covering her face. "Just...go to your room. I don't want to even look at you right now."

He went to him room. He sat on his bed, wondering exactly when everything had changed. When had his friends turned to people who wanted to see you get your nose broken? They hadn't helped him. They had just stayed there on that wall, letting the crowd form around him. They hadn't helped him when he was on the ground, the concrete cutting into the side of his face. Hadn't they panicked when Vince put his hand to his face and it came away red?

Vince wondered exactly when fighting back tears had become more difficult then fighting off those kicks to his ribs. He almost laughed. The boy he had hit...his friends had come to help him...were Vince's friends more pathetic than a group of hoodies? He did laugh. It hurt his side.

- - -

He walked. He didn't know where he was walking to. The wind whipped his hair into his face and he couldn't see. People hurried past, their heads tucked down in their coat collars against the chilling wind. They didn't look to see the boy who pushed past, his arms crossed against a t-shirt too tight against his chest. He was cold because he hadn't thought to grab a jacket when he had stormed out of his house.

Vince caught sight of a familiar face. Walking towards him, she was trying to push her long brown hair behind her ears, out of the way of the wind. _Gideon_. Vince cracked a smile. He longed to talk to someone who might be on his side. Might pity him. Might understand.

"Gideon!" Vince called out to her as soon as she was within earshot. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to see _someone _smile.

She saw him, but didn't smile. Their eyes locked for a moment before Gideon forced her gaze away, fixing her expression into one of determination. She was set on pushing past Vince. Set on ignoring him.

Vince frowned. Whatever he had done that meant she refused to call him, meant she pushed past him like that, her shoulder forced past his own, it had to be bad. His hand reached out of it's own accord, grabbed her arm and pulled her round to face him. People in the street noticed them now, swearing and muttering because they were blocking part of the street.

"What's up?" Vince asked. She wouldn't look at him. _Isn't anything going to go right today?_ he asked himself.

"You're in people's way, Vince," was all she said, quietly, after the third person shoved past and swore. Vince almost swore too, but he held his tongue. Keeping a hold on Gideon's arm, he manoeuvred both of them out of the path of rushing people and into the shelter of a bus stop.

"Why won't you look at me?" Vince demanded, acting more daring than he actually was.

So she did. Just glanced at his face. Her cold expression melted into one of concern when she saw the harsh red line along his cheekbone, so bold it could have been drawn on with a marker. The purple mark on his nose. the red line that seemed to divide his bottom lip perfectly in two. She tried to force her expression back to how it had been before, but it wouldn't stay.

"What happened to you?" She brushed her fingers over the gaze on the size of his face. Vince flinched.

"I got into a bit of a fight, that's all."

"Oh god, is your nose broken? It looks terrible!"

"Gee, thanks!" Vince couldn't help but smile, stretching his already split lip was painful, but he reckoned a joke was worth it. "I get beat up and you help my self esteem by telling me my nose is ruined!"

"I don't think you'll ever have a problem with your self esteem, Vince," Gideon smirked, temporarily forgetting that she was meant to be angry at him.

"Oh great, so now I'm big headed too? Ugly and arrogant!" He pretended to accuse her, but couldn't stop laughing.

Gideon laughed too, reaching up to brush a strand of Vince's dark hair away from his face. "I didn't know it was even possible to be ugly _and _arrogant."

"Well, clearly, I manage it!" He grinned, turning his back to Gideon and changing his mouth from a smile to a mock pout.

"Oh, Vince, stop winding me up!"

The two of the stayed sat on the bus stop bench for a few more minutes, laughing and joking, when Vince's mobile gave a piercing ring and demanded to be answered. He grabbed it and ducked behind the bus stop, where the traffic wasn't as loud, to take the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Vince, it's Howard."

"Oh, hey..." Vince's mind traced back to the last time he had talked to Howard. He had said they might meet up some time...maybe he was ringing to arrange it? "How did you get my number?"

"How many Noir's do you think there are in the phonebook?"

Vince laughed. "Uh oh, you rang my mum to get my number?"

"Yeah. Uh oh indeed. She's not very happy with you. Told me to tell you that you have to go home right away...she said some more stuff...but I kind of tuned out...no offence to your mother, who I'm sure is a lovely woman."

"Lovely is one way of putting it," Vince smirked to himself, "so how can I help you?"

There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the phone and a pause before Howard spoke. "I have a bit of a confession to make."

"Oh?"

"Please don't get mad, I feel so terrible about this..."

"What?" Vince asked, his stomach twisting uncomfortably.

"I didn't give Gideon your number."

_So that's why she hasn't called me! _Vince bit his bottom lip, he remembered the previous night, how long he had stayed up, just waiting for a phone call or a text. He tasted blood and remembered that he was biting right into the scab on his lip. He wiped it off on the back of his hand.

"Okay." Vince wanted to shout at Howard, tell him how he had worried. He wanted to tell him how his day had been even worse, 'cause the whole time he had been worrying what terrible thing he had done to deserve being blanked. But he couldn't shout, it was like someone had turned the volume down on his voice.

"You're not mad?"

_Yes, yes you are._ "No, I'm ok." He wasn't quite sure why he was lying.

"Thanks a lot Vince...one more thing...and again, please don't be mad."

Vince's stomach twisted again, telling him that he was going to get even angrier this time. "Alright, what is it?"

Again, there was a brief silence on the other end of the phone. "I told her...I told her that you were going out with someone else..."

_No wonder she wouldn't look at me! She thinks I'm a cheater! She thinks I'm a horrible person...she still does...she doesn't know that isn't true. _Vince began to panic. _Now she won't believe me if I tell her it's not true, 'cause she'll just think I'm a liar as well!_

"Vince, are you ok?" Howard's nervous voice reminded Vince that he was still on the phone.

_No, you're not ok._ "I'm fine." Why couldn't he tell the truth? He knew why. The lies were easier, they were simpler, they didn't involve any more fighting.

"Really? Wow...Vince...I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am. Can I ask you one favour, even though I've been so mean?"

"Go ahead."

"If you see Gideon, please don't tell her I lied about you, _she'll_ think I'm horrible too."

"Okay."

"Okay? You'll do that for me? Thanks Vince! I'm really sorry for lying like that, I don't have an excuse for it...I'm just really sorry. Am I forgiven?"

"Yeah, sure..." _You haven't forgiven him...don't lie. _

"Thanks so much...I have to go now, but I owe you one. Bye!" Howard hung up the phone.

Vince's thoughts started racing so fast that they hurt his head. One side of him, badgering, bugging him for telling lies all the way through that conversation. His conscience demanded an explanation. _Why can't you just be honest? Why couldn't you just tell him you were angry? He would have understood and you could have worked it out. Now you're as much of a liar as Gideon thinks you are._

Then there was another part of his brain. The bit that liked to work things out. It was trying to work out why Howard had told those lies about him. _You saved his life, why would he say things like that about you? Especially to Gideon, when he knows that she likes you. _For once, it didn't take long for Vince's brain to work something out. _He's jealous! He was trying to break the two of you up. He loves Gideon!_

Then there was the negative of his conscience. The little devil, sat on his shoulder, like the one in cartoons. _He lied about you,_ it taunted him. If it was real, Vince could imagine it sat on his shoulder, pulling at his hair. _You should get revenge...you should tell Gideon that he lied about you. Go on, tell her. Then she'll never like him! _It cackled in his ear, then suddenly dropped it's voice and whispered. _No...wait...I have a much better idea..._

Vince couldn't help but grin wickedly. It _was_ a better idea.


End file.
